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process improvement

“What do you mean the server went down?” asks the CEO. “It has been happening every week” the lead tech says. “It didn’t do that for the other customers,” laments the CEO. The tech replies “This customer is ten thousand times larger than all the other customers combined. We didn’t build the application to handle … Read more

What has a hundred legs, sits in your office, occupies fifty computer screens, clicks on keyboards and trackpads all day, and gets nothing accomplished? Answer: Your development team. Wait, the CEO says. What is going on here? We hired a bunch of developers. We bought a very long party table and two very long benches. … Read more

When I encounter a software company that claims to be “agile,” I often also hear something like this: “We’re an agile shop. We don’t do documentation because we don’t need to. Documentation goes obsolete quickly.” Right. Whenever I hear such things, there is a part of my brain called the bullshitathalamus that quickly utters some … Read more

Imagine this scenario: your company paid a recruiting firm to find candidates for new technical roles in support of your expanding product portfolio. Technical talent is rolling in, your team is interviewing them, but nobody is accepting your offers. You are starting to wonder how this is happening. “We’re a world-class company, with world-class talent … Read more

Meetings have a bad reputation in the corporate world. Everyone seems to have war stories of boring, wasteful, time-sucking meetings. In my own experience, I would estimate that about one in fifteen meetings that I attend is “effective” in my own definition. Alas, for my junior colleagues just entering the workforce, it is entirely possible … Read more

What do bagel shops and engineering have in common? More than you might think! Bill Gates once said: “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” I think most business should pay meaningful attention to that statement. At upper echelons of management, this kind of viewpoint on customer focus and process optimization is … Read more

Imagine this scenario: A seemingly great company woos you with overtures about their great software, unheard-of cultural values, and equally great support of software engineering best practices. They promise you that the sky is the limit! You will be working on the next generation of their flagship product, pushing the company into greatness, if you … Read more

Would your company do things differently if a critical bug cost a million dollars to fix? Part of the reason for the bugs in software these days, might be our willingness to accept them. We have become so used to software that is filled with bugs, that we are willing to lower our expectations accordingly. … Read more

What can software people learn from Navy SEALs? Plenty! If there is any organization that knows something about unit integrity, teamwork and operational leadership, it is the Navy SEALs. While I am not a SEAL, and I certainly would not claim their skills, I have applied some SEAL-inspired principles in the software domain. I’ve always … Read more

We live in an increasingly globalized and dynamic world, and the software engineering space is not immune to the challenges that this presents. Companies are starting up, shutting down, off-shoring, near-shoring, and sometimes all of the above. This post presents a hypothesis around the definition and assessment of a software development culture. For the sake … Read more